Dotcom, who co-founded the site, was granted New Zealand residency in November 2010, despite officials knowing about convictions in Germany.

According to the Immigration Act, the default position is to refuse residency because of previous convictions, but this can be over-ridden by senior department officials.

Dotcom applied under the Investor Plus category after investing $10 million in Government bonds, and his German convictions were wiped under that country's clean slate legislation.

According to papers released to Radio New Zealand under the Official Information Act, Immigration NZ learnt in January last year that Dotcom had been convicted of eight charges in relation to shares he bought on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

He was fined HK$8000 (NZ$1250) for the offences.

INZ stood by its decision to grant Dotcom residency on account of his financial investments in New Zealand.

A special media team was assembled to deal with any adverse publicity it could face over the decision at the time, the radio station said.

The team developed a strategy to deal with the media and public backlash that could result from the decision in February last year.